Six Key Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
These six key strategies not only help students develop English as a second language, they also help native speakers learn words that are not part of everyday English (for example, words such as algorithm, allegory, Avogadro’s hypothesis, or filibuster).
Strategy 1: Vocabulary and Language Development
The first of the six key strategies is vocabulary and language development, through which teachers introduce new concepts by discussing vocabulary words key to that concept. Exploring specific academic terms like algorithm starts a sequence of lessons on larger math concepts and builds the student’s background knowledge.
Content knowledge:
- Introduce new concepts via essential academic vocabulary.
- Connect student-accessible synonyms or concepts to essential vocabulary.
- Support students to distinguish word meanings, & their uses for subject-specific tasks& prerequisite language skills.
Academic language:
- Engage beginning-level students in using basic social & school vocabulary, phrases, & sentence structures.
- As students progress, continue to contextualize instruction of more complex language forms & uses: subject-specific academic vocabulary, grammatical forms, & sentence structures used in listening, speaking, reading & writing.
- Respectfully distinguish differences between primary language use & standard academic English.
Sample activities/assessments:
- Word analysis: e.g., dissecting words into their parts (prefix, root, suffix).
- Vocabulary journals, A-B-C books, word webs, word walls.
- Interactive editing, Cloze paragraphs, dictations, subject-specific journals.
Strategy 2: Guided Interaction
The second strategy is guided interaction. With this method, teachers structure lessons so students work together to understand what they read—by listening, speaking, reading, and writing collaboratively about the academic concepts in the text.
Content knowledge:
Structure multiple opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions as they learn content & develop their use of academic language in speaking/listening, reading & writing.
- Clarify expectations, outcomes, & procedures related to tasks for flexible group activities.
- Allow for primary language interactions to clarify concepts.
Academic language:
- Structure multiple opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions to increase speaking, listening, reading comprehension & writing skills.
- Support language interactions with review/preview of language forms, use of graphic organizers or other types of modeling.
Sample activities/assessments:
- Partner interviews, Class surveys, Tea Party, Think-Pair-Share, Numbered Heads Together, Four Corners
- Poster projects, group presentations
- Perspective line-ups
- Readers’ Theatre
Strategy #3: Metacognition and Authentic Assessment
The third strategy is metacognition and authentic assessment. Rather than having students simply memorize information, teachers model and explicitly teach thinking skills (metacognition) crucial to learning new concepts. Research shows that metacognition is a critical skill for learning a second language and a skill used by highly proficient readers of any language. With authentic assessments, teachers use a variety of activities to check students’ understanding, acknowledging that students learning a second language need a variety of ways to demonstrate their understanding of concepts that are not wholly reliant on advanced language skills.
Metacognition & Authentic Assessment Content knowledge:
- Teach students processes for metacognition: i.e., pre-reading & pre-writing skills, word analysis, & methods to monitor their reading comprehension.
- Teach & model ways for students to describe their thinking processes verbally& in writing.
- Use a variety of activities & tasks to check for understanding.
Academic language:
- In addition to components listed above, ensure that assessment tasks are appropriate to students’ assessed language development level.
- Provide enough time to complete tasks, appropriate feedback, rubrics, & models to guide students’ self-assessment.
Sample activities/assessments:
- Guided reading, completing chapter pre-reading guides, reciprocal teaching, Directed Reading
- Thinking Activity (DRTA), Anticipation Guides, double-entry journals
- Think-alouds, K-W-L
- Learning logs/journals, quick-writes
Strategy #4: Explicit Instruction
The fourth strategy is explicit instruction, or direct teaching of concepts, academic language, and reading comprehension strategies needed to complete classroom tasks.
Explicit Instruction Content knowledge:
- Teach essential grade-level concepts & build students’ background knowledge as needed.
- Connect overarching ideas (whole), then examine components or processes (part), culminating with students’ own applications or synthesis of ideas (new whole).
- Explicitly teach academic language & cognitive reading skills needed to complete subject-specific tasks, e.g., analyze, interpret, classify, compare, synthesize, persuade, solve.
Academic language:
- Teach essential language forms & uses per students’ assessed language development level: listening/speaking, reading & writing.
- Follow contextualized introduction & explicit modeling of language use with repeated practice.
Sample activities/assessments:
- Teach/explain prerequisite language applications: reading directions, idioms, sentence starters, essay formats, pattern drills, or completing a story map; check for understanding.
- Teach specific reading comprehension skills for completing: task procedures, answering questions, word problems, understanding text & graphics.
Strategy #5: Meaning-based Context and Universal Themes
The fifth strategy is the use of meaning-based context and universal themes, referring to taking something meaningful from the students’ everyday lives and using it as a springboard to interest them in academic concepts. Research shows that when students are interested in something and can connect it to their lives or cultural backgrounds they are more highly motivated and learn at a better rate.
Content knowledge:
- Introduce new concepts through familiar resources, prompts, visuals, or themes.
- Use associated types of “realia” meaningful or familiar to students to affirm the appropriate context for using new language.
- Sustain motivation to learn challenging concepts by linking ideas to resources or contexts that reflect student interests & socio-cultural or linguistic backgrounds.
Academic language:
- Use methods listed above for introducing academic vocabulary, sentence structures, & language uses.
- Link ongoing language practice or tasks to both school-based & community-based uses.
- Respectfully compare & analyze language use, & meanings to other cultures or context, to promote metacognition.
Sample activities/assessments:
- Quick-write responses or recording student responses to visuals, current event stories, real-life models, video clips, teacher read-alouds, thematic prompts, role-play, comparing language uses for similar contexts.
- Identifying & analyzing different perspectives & language references re: essential concepts
Strategy #6: Modeling, Graphic Organizers, and Visuals
The final strategy is the use of modeling, graphic organizers, and visuals. The use of a
variety of visual aids, including pictures, diagrams, and charts, helps all students—and
especially ELL students—easily recognize essential information and its relationship to
supporting ideas. Visuals make both the language and the content more accessible to
students.Content knowledge:
- Model how to complete tasks.
- Provide graphic organizers & meaningful visuals to support students’ recognition of essential information.
- Use graphic organizers to support understanding of specific tasks, & specific uses of academic language.
- Use advanced organizers to support metacognition, & overall comprehension.
Academic language:
- Use methods listed above with the addition of word banks, word walls, & modeling the use of graphic organizers appropriate to ELD level.
- Appropriately modulate language delivery, i.e., speed & enunciation, when modeling language forms or presenting content; repetition helps.
Sample activities/resources:
- Venn diagrams, story maps, main idea + supporting detail schematics, double-entry journals, semantic attribute matrices.
- Jazz chants, read-alouds.
Reference: The New Teacher Center (NTC), University of California at Santa Cruz
http://www.all4ed.org/files/archive/publications/SixKeyStrategies.pdf
Tips
Tip of the Week
Week 1 Parent Communication
Week 2 Working in Pairs
Week 3 Read Alouds
Week 4 Think Alouds
Week 5 Check
Understanding
Week 6 Pronunciation
Week 7 Speaking English
Week 8 Guessing answers
Week 9 Error Correction
Week 10 Reading Strategies
Week 11 Translating
Week 12 Routines
Week 13 DOs and DON'Ts
Week 14 Round Robin Writing
Week 15 Quick Writes
Week 16 Key Vocabulary
Week 17 Turn and Talk
Week 18 Words Up
Week 19 Ticket out the Door
Week 20 Four Domains
Week 21 Feedback
Week 22 Word banks
Week 23 Kernal essays
Week 24 Comprehension check
Week 25 Picture this!
Week 26 ABC books
Week 27 Content & Language objectives
Coming Soon!
Week 28
Week 29
Week 30
Week 31
Week 32
Week 33
Week 34
Week 35
Week 36
Ways to help your ELL students:
Identify which students in your classes are categorized as ELL students. Contact your ELL Specialist or your testing coordinator to determine which students in your classes speak a language other than English as their first language. Your contact person should be able to tell you not only who your ELL students are, but also what each student’s level of language proficiency is.
Use your test data. Under the guidelines of NCLB, ELL students must be tested annually to determine their proficiency status. Determine each student's level of language proficiency in each domain: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Focus on vocabulary. For ELL students, vocabulary development is especially critical for reading and comprehending text. Provide students with a description, explanation or example. Then have students provide their own descriptions, explanations or examples along with a picture that they have drawn which represents the term or phrase. Do a variety of activities with the vocabulary terms including graphic organizers or games.
Have the students practice saying and discussing the terms.
Check for understanding. Go beyond "Do you understand?" ELL students will almost always say "yes", even if they actually don't understand due to peer pressure. Instead, ask them a question that will require an action as a response, such as draw a picture, or restate in their own words.
Make content comprehensible. Write clearly defined content and language objectives on the board and review them both before and after the lesson. By reviewing them at the beginning of the lesson, students will be able to anticipate what is expected of them. By reviewing the objectives again at the end of the lesson, both students and the teacher will be able to evaluate whether or not the objectives have been met.
Use supplementary materials to help facilitate learning.
Adapt content to ELL students' needs through graphic organizers, outlines, labeling of pictures, study guides, adapted text, and highlighted text.
The 5Es
Research supports the belief that students develop higher levels of abilities when they are motivated with real-life problems that encourage critical thinking, basic skill development, and practice.
Engage - Begin with an application or demonstration that allows students to use their prior knowledge and experiences.
Explore - Ask students to explain the connections orally. Use concrete experiences before moving to the abstract.
Explain - Provide students with an explicit overview of the key concepts and vocabulary with a graphic organizer. Encourage students to speak and write mathematically to enhance mathematical learning.
Elaborate - Correlate the oral language to the new academic language, allowing students to work in cooperative groups or with partners. Provide explicit and intensive instruction in basic concepts and skills. Avoid overemphasis on teaching basic skills to the point of inhibiting the development of higher order thinking skills. Model and provide guided practice before beginning pair work. Independent practice after paired work develops greater concept understanding.
Evaluate - Set high expectations, evaluating responses for clear reasoning, not allowing simple sentences or errors in grammar and spelling to mask student learning. Informally check student comprehension and performance throughout the lesson. Provide assessments tailored to a student’s level of proficiency.